I was working in an underground mine in the early 2000s, I don’t recall the actual year, I reckon around 2001 or 2002. We drove around underground in the Toyota Landcruiser ute with cassette tape deck playing, someone had taped a radio show and that is what we listened to. Naturally, the AM radio did not work underground, as we were deeper than 1 km below the surface, there was no reception as soon as we drove through the portal.

So this cassette tape was played on repeat throughout the shift, I got to know the songs pretty well on this magnetic tape pretty well, it was taped off the morning show, so it was like FM radio. The song that really stood out for me was Something in the air, I knew the song, but I didn’t really know the band Thunderclap Newman all that well. I later learned they were pretty much a one hit wonder, what a song to score that status with.

Regardless, it had that late 1960s and early 1970s vibe about it, this song pretty much sums up that period for me. Pete Townshend from The Who recruited Andy Thunderclap Newman, a jazz pianist who was a friend of Townshend, Jimmy McCulloch who later played with Wings, and Pete Townshend on bass guitar. Pete Townshend also produced the song, this was a band with three dissimilar members who came together as a project band and scored big.

So when I was able to view the video on YouTube, I loved it. The song improved as the fashion, the life, the style of London in the 1960s just came to life. The drummer Speedy Keen wrote Something in the air, the song transitioned from the hippie 60s to the political activism of the 1970s. The revolution was not about a violent uprising, liberation and the change that was coming.

The dissatisfaction, unrest and flower power movement during the Vietnam War era. There were race wars with the race riot in Brixton, and the civil rights movement in the United States provided plenty of upheaval. They were looking at social and cultural change in the 1970s, the attitude was changing, I never recalled the Vietnam protests as I was too young, I have read about and whilst I do not condone the methods, I appreciate the sediment.

If she wants to spend some time in a cheap mall in Bugis, I am pretty happy with that. I can stand outside the shop or stall tapping away on my screen whilst she is looking for trinkets for family and co-workers.

She had checked up the mall on a website, so I was happy to wander down and stroll around. I was bemused to finally learn that was the mall we have already been going to, just behind Bugis Junction. I had no idea this was the ABC Mall, better known as ABC Bargain Centre she was asking about.

I am standing out the front of the shop with a Korean guy, he is doing exactly the same as me, waiting patiently with phone in hand as his girl is inside browsing. He was just standing there for a while, then reached for his phone to entertain himself. He is playing music and watching a video whilst I am tapping away on my screen. I laughed when he yawned, he was bored so this was pretty funny. We are both from different countries, different backgrounds and cultures, but ultimately, we are both the same.

I have been highly critical of Peter Dutton in the 2025 election loss to Anthony Albanese and the near destruction of the Liberal Party. The devastation of the Liberal Party, losing 15 seats including Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson.

The Liberal Party is the party of small business, now Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party is surging ahead in the RedBridge Group and Accent Research polls and are looking likely to become the official Opposition Party in the 2028 election. However, based on current polls, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party may well cause an upset if the current polls are replicated in the 2028 federal election. The rise of One Nation is of particular concern to me, Pauline Hanson has had some lousy ideas from “We are being swamped by Asians” to “Aboriginal claims” and now moving onto muslim rhetoric.

The Liberal Party is under pressure from two fronts, the Teals have already impacted the moderate inner city seats, that trend was already established prior to the 2025 election. Next, the Liberal Party has lost its conservative voters to the more aggressive One Nation policies. I was of the opinion that Sussan Ley was going to unite the party after the divisive Peter Dutton, but as it turns out, the vast majority of Liberal voters did not support her policies. To be fair to Sussan Ley, her agenda was largely derailed by the grandstanding David Littleproud. These divisive actions promoted instability, so between Dutton and Littleproud, the coalition between the Liberal Party and the National Party was so damaged that this opened the opportunity to take advantage of this disunity and fill the void.

With my father, we attended the 2023 West Australian Football League [WAFL] at Optus Oval. I am a Fremantle Football Club supporter and their alignment club in the WAFL competition qualified for the Grand Final. The team I supported as a child was East Fremantle, they qualified as well so it was a win/win day for me, no matter who won – I was going to be happy.

We decided to book a hospitality area that we do not normally attend, so this gave us a look into a different match day area. Ironically, this hospitality area is directly below our normal seats, so whilst the view of the ground did not change, we saw the hospitality area we normally miss. So we went to indulge in the game day food, it wasn’t that great to be honest, but the food and drinks package was reasonable for the price we paid.

When the game ended, I asked the security if they would open the doors to the ground at the lower viewing area to let us onto the ground. This is not too bad a request as they had let the crowd onto the ground for the premiership presentation. What made it difficult was our doors opened to the restricted media area and match day officials. However, as I had asked the security guard nicely, I had been treating him respectfully all afternoon, and we were neither threatening nor showing visible influence of alcohol, security was more than happy to let us through.

So as we were wandering around in the restricted area, the official holding the premiership cup was waiting patiently with the trophy in hand. I asked him nicely if my old man could hold the Dixon Cup before it was presented to the premiership captain of the East Fremantle Football Club, to my surprise, he was more than obliging. So I whipped my phone out and got a series of snaps of my old man holding up the Dixon Cup.

The Dixson Cup is the oldest premiership cup in Australian Rules history, inaugurated in 1885, the cup was created and promoted by Sir Hugh Robert Dixson. The cup was made in the United States to the specifications required by Dixson. The cup was to go to the first club to win the premiership three times. The first premiership was Rovers [now West Perth] in 1885, and Fremantle in 1886 with Unions [now East Perth] winning the Premiership in 1887, 1888, and 1889 and claiming the Dixson Cup.

The Dixson Cup was lost after Unions awarded the cup to the premiership captain Paddy Knox, in the 1960s the Dixson Cup was privately purchased at auction in the 1960s. When the whereabouts of the Dixson Cup became known to league officials in the 1980s, the Western Australian Football League [WAFL] first attempted legal action, this failed and after decades the Dixson Cup ended back at the WAFL where it is now presented to the premiership team as a perpetual trophy.

There is no mixing for me, I like Cointreau just as it is, I don’t even drink Cointreau on ice, instead keeping my bottle of Cointreau in the refrigerator. It is better to drink from a crystal whiskey tumbler, but these days I just sip from a crystal shot glass. My whiskey tumblers were all broken by people staying in my house in the trail of destruction that they usually leave behind.

So what I learned is when researching this post, Cointreau is a form of Triple Sec, so I need to ask, what is Triple Sec? Firstly, there is a liqueur named Triple Sec, it is an orange flavoured liqueur containing 20% – 40% alcohol by volume. Triple Sec is typically consumed in Margarita, Long Island Iced Tea, Sidecar, White Car, Mai Tai, and Cosmopolitan cocktails and is a form of orange liqueur that is perfect for blending in cocktails. Apparently, the term Triple Sec was removed from the bottle between the world wars to differentiate the liqueur.

So I needed to learn a little about Cointreau, they source sweet and bitter oranges. The bitter oranges are peeled and paired into single ribbons whilst the sweet oranges are quartered. The peels are sun dried for three to five days to achieve a moisture content of 11% to meet the balance of sweet and bitter orange flavour. From there, pure water, sugar and neutral alcohol are the only other ingredients in the natural liqueur that is my favourite liqueur.

The official state visit of US President Donald Trump to China had already raised concerns even before his flight touched down. The bilateral attack on Iran would feature high on Trump’s agenda. There are some tankers allowed transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a number bound for China.

The concern is the ad hoc and undisciplined approach of the Trump presidency including the late night and early morning tweets on his social media platform. What an administration requires is predictability and reliability, Trump offers neither. Nor is Trump playing three dimensional chess as his supporters claim, a staffer once famously leaked that they are flat out trying to stop him from eating the pieces. Given the recklessness shown in the Iranian attacks and the inability to foresee or plan for Iranian forces blocking the Strait of Hormuz, his judgement is seriously questioned.

So what are the concerns related to the China state visit? Firstly, there is the independence of Taiwan, given Trump’s predictability to listen to the last person he spoke to, President Xi will cherish the ability to talk directly to Trump. Given Trump’s child-like admiration of autocrats and authoritarians, Trump is likely to be persuaded by Xi Jinping if he appeals to Trump’s ego. Any mention of a change of long-term US policy will likely be seized upon by Chinese leadership, this will have significant impact on Taiwan’s independence and self defence.

Whilst Trump believes he is respected by world leaders, the exact opposite is true, these world leaders hold him in contempt. They know Trump is easily manipulated and changes his mind frequently, these leaders know he can be compromised and will attempt to gain favour with him based on his lack of direction and morals. Red carpet on arrival, lavish state dinners and meetings massaging his ego is likely to score concessions. They know Trump is a big talker on social media, once they get to him in a face-to-face setting, they know they can get results and concessions. They know a TACO backdown is easily negotiated, all they need to do is appeal to his enormous ego.

So Bruce wrote the song on the weekend, recorded the song on Monday at Stone Hill Studio, mixed on Tuesday and released on Wednesday. The song was released just four days after the murder of Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis [24/1/26], before that, Renee Good was shot by ICE Agents in her vehicle [7/1/26].

This folk rock US President Donald Trump described Bruce Springsteen as “a bad, and very boring singer”, this is a standard Trump response. This is to call that person not smart, untalented, over-rated, or some basic schoolyard bullying name calling. In relative terms, Trump is describing himself, his fragile ego cannot accept any form of criticism, he sees his own intellectual shortcomings so he tries to project them on others.

Bruce Springsteen described the Trump Administration as corrupt, incompetent and treasonous during a Manchester show in 2025. Naturally, Trump had a public meltdown and in a post called the Boss writing “importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL. In Trump style [or lack thereof] added this dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country.” This is a pretty personal attack, especially for a guy still filling stadiums like he did in the 1970s and 1980s.

So how did this song go, 2.5 million views on YouTube on the day of release, holding the number one spot on iTunes in 19 countries including the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, France, New Zealand, and Italy. A pretty decent song debut for an untalented guy who is apparently incompetent. Even better, Krisi Noem is gone, she got a starring mention in Bruce’s lyrics. Even more embarrassing to the Trump Administration, her husband is cross-dressing in Barbie clothes, another sex scandal for an Administration that appeals to right-wing Christian conservatives.

I was a frequent purchaser of Wolf Blass reds a number of years back. I think when chasing the international market, they became a little too fixated on preservatives making the wines real headache material, that was the point I dropped Wolf Blass wines pretty quick. Wandering through the departures lounge, I viewed a bottle of their 2012 grey lable shiraz and I thought I would revisit the producer – I was glad I did.

The wine was particularly complex exhibiting bold oak notes supported by ripe berries, hints of spice, chocolate overtones, and a just hint of pepper. This 2012 vintage release is from the shiraz McLaren Vale region supporting the renowned shiraz expressions of this region. The outstanding fruit grown in this maritime coastal region has been crafted with the structure and character that this shiraz is expected to age impeccably. 

The TAG Heuer Formula 1 Limited Edition Chronograph x Oracle Red Bull Racing is worth a look. Whilst I am a longtime fan of TAG Heuer, I am not really into Formula One, so I do not keep up with the teams or the drivers.

So when I read the specifications, TAG Heuer stated this limited edition timepiece has a black DLC-coated case. Ok, so what is DLC coating? This is diamond-like carbon, a thin-film coating composed of a carbon-based material that possesses diamond-like properties. Right, so this offers a hard scratch resistant case with a deep colour.

A DLC coating is applied using physical vapor deposition [PVD] or plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition [PE-CVD] processes. The PVD process uses a vacuum-based technique to create a thin, yet durable film by vaporising a solid source material and condensing it onto the case surface. This Formula 1 limited edition comes on a blue rubber strap to offer a sporty yet comfortable feel of this timepiece.

The Red Bull team logo is written between 7 o’clock and 10 o’clock on the dial, with an asphalt-textured dial in Oracle Red Bull Racing blue. The chronograph sub-dials are at the 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. There are red highlights on the pushers, red on the sub-dials and a yellow second hand. There is a steel bezel with aluminium insert, the caseback is engraved with 20th season logo, with a One of 3000 inscription to denote the limited edition status.

So now that President Trump has declared victory in Iran, one would expect the Strait of Hormuz would be opened again.  Yet Donald Trump continues to bang out content on his social media site that the Ranians are begging for a deal. Naturally, this disrespect irritates them, they pull out of negotiations and instead release another Lego video. If the situation was not so serious, this would actually be funny.

The first thing that needs to happen is Donald Trump gets off social media, he is not helping the situation, he is making it worse. Secondly, Trump needs to stop making media comments, he needs to hand over responsibility to Marco Rubio, and tell him to get it sorted. No more Steve Witkoff, no more Jared Kushner, serious negotiators from the State Department need to be brought in and negotiate in good faith. Trump can then concern himself with the East Wing Ballroom, and monuments to himself in Washington.

The ridiculous double blockade of the Strait of Hormuz needs to be lifted, the oil and gas needs to flow again and economic activity resume. The gulf states including Saudi Arabia are losing patience. Already MBS has blocked the US military access to their airspace, their aircraft were effectively grounded and left parked on the tarmac at Prince Sultan airbase. Now other gulf nations are looking at the Saudi stance and may impose restrictions of their own on the US military.

Gulf state infrastructure is getting hit by Iranian missiles and drones, this hurts their oil production and has damaged their reputation as a safe tourism destination. The gulf states are the ones bearing the brunt of the US war against Iran, this is costing them enormously. The Saudi leadership quickly put an end to the US operation to escort ships through the sess lanes, this operation lasted less than 36 hours before being shut down after pressure from Saudi Arabia. This is a mess, Trump needs to get out before we have a global recession, Trump needs to shut his mouth and stand aside.